Subsidiary of the Chinese Geely group: “There is no longer a long-term future for cars with internal combustion engines”.
With Volvo, the next automaker is announcing a complete departure from the internal combustion engine. From 2030, the Swedes, which are part of the Chinese Geely Group, only want to build and sell pure electric cars, as the company announced in Gothenburg on Tuesday. “There is no longer a long-term future for cars with internal combustion engines,” said Volvo's chief technology officer, Henrik Green.
Volvo had already announced a long time ago that by the middle of the decade it wanted to increase the proportion of purely electric models to around half – the rest should then be hybrid drives. According to the plans, however, these will no longer be part of the offer in 2030.
With the project, Volvo joins the growing group of car manufacturers who want to say goodbye to combustion engines completely. US auto giant General Motors recently announced that it would only sell zero-emission cars from 2035 onwards. The British car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover recently announced this for its luxury brand Jaguar from the year 2025. However, German manufacturers have so far held back from a possible phase-out of gasoline, diesel and mixed drives at specific times.
Volvo Cars boss Hakan Samuelsson also wants to take a radical cut in sales. In the future, the all-electric cars from Volvo will only be sold directly via the Internet. The new all-electric XC40 Recharge Pure Electric for model year 2022 will only be available online. The current trading model is facing a fundamental change, according to the company. Nevertheless, the contractual partners in the Volvo dealerships continue to play an important role; they remain the contact point for customers.
The car manufacturer Volvo Cars, based in Gothenburg, has been separated from the Swedish commercial vehicle manufacturer Volvo AB for many years. Volvo Cars is owned by the Chinese auto company Geely, which also has a stake in Volvo AB.
